The Battens

Jane and Frank Batten

Jane Parke Batten, together with her late husband, Frank Batten, Sr., founder and retired chairman of Landmark Communications, has played a major role in redefining the cultural and educational landscape of Virginia.

Mrs. Batten’s interest in Virginia Wesleyan was kindled when her daughter, Betsy, enrolled as a freshman in 1978. Mrs. Batten came on the Board of Trustees in 1981, served as Board Chair from 1995-1998, and became a Trustee Emerita in 2015. As chair, she molded and led a Board that was informed, focused, and challenged to move Virginia Wesleyan forward. Her role in the development and revitalization of Virginia Wesleyan reflects her high standard of service and commitment. Mrs. Batten received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from VWU in 2006.

In 2016, Mrs. Batten shared her vision for the establishment of an honors college at Virginia Wesleyan: To prepare academically advanced and socially engaged students to lead society’s progressions and institutions with innovative approaches and ethical values that steward an environment threatened by global degradation and climate change. Mrs. Batten knew that bright, young, and motivated individuals will be the ones to solve the environmental issues of today and the future, and she trusted the Virginia Wesleyan liberal arts education to equip students with the analytical, synthetic, and resolution-oriented skills to address environmental degradation to surmount a plethora of other challenges in the world.

Beyond the Batten Honors College, the Battens' legacy at Virginia Wesleyan University includes the Jane P. Batten Student Center, the Batten Professorship in the Batten Honors College, the Frank and Jane P. Batten Distinguished Scholar Award for faculty, the Jane and Frank Batten Endowed Scholarships, and numerous other capital projects around campus. In 2023, Mrs. Batten made a lead gift to establish the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art at Virginia Wesleyan University. In 2024, Mrs. Batten made an unspecified gift to charter the Jane P. Batten & David R. Black School for International Studies, a joint venture of Virginia Wesleyan University and Lakeland (WI) University at their collaborative campus in Japan. The family’s leadership continues to assure Virginia Wesleyan’s place among the top private liberal arts colleges in the country.

The Battens have a long history of generous support for higher education institutions in Virginia including the University of Virginia, the College of William and Mary, Hollins University, and Old Dominion University. Mr. Batten served as the Vice Chairman of the State Council of Higher Education of Virginia (SCHEV). Outside of Virginia, the Battens have made notable gifts to Harvard Business School and Culver Academies in Indiana (Mr. Batten’s alma mater). Mrs. Betten was honored by the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges in 2024 for her transformative support of private education in Virginia. 

Mrs. Batten is also active in a number of other civic and philanthropic endeavors, including E3: Elevate Early Education, the Slover Library Foundation, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Hampton Roads Community Foundation. The CIVIC Leadership Institute presented her with the 2014 Darden Award for Regional Leadership, and in 2013 she was named one of the Most Influential Virginians by Virginia Business. The Norfolk Cosmopolitan Club declared Mrs. Batten as Norfolk’s First Citizen and gave her the Cosmopolitan Distinguished Service Award Medal in 2010, an honor also bestowed upon her husband in 1966. 

Mrs. Batten attended Hollins University in Roanoke and is a resident of Virginia Beach. She and her late husband have three children, Dorothy, Betsy, and Frank, Jr.